Facial profile-esthetics and acceptance.

The human face influences and moulds one's personality and behaviour. The facial profile has become an important field of investigation by sculptors, artists, physiotherapists, orthodontists and maxillo-facial surgeons. The present study was conducted to understand the facial profile acceptance of 55 girls from silhouettee photographs judged by 3 orthodontists, 3 artists and 3 common men. To find out who appreciates the profile change the most, the chi-square test was applied to distribution of 3 professionally different groups for various occlusal categories. It was found that common bases for judging the profile do exist amongst the professionally different groups, however the public is more astute analyst of the face. Two profiles which got all acceptable votes were associated with malocclusion. Attempts were made to find out which areas on the facial outline alter the most between the acceptable and non-acceptable groups. It was concluded that the lip outline and the chin are chiefly responsible for profile acceptance while the nose alone, of its own, does not play important role. The only way by which the nose affects the facial profile is its relative position as compared to the position of the chin. Thus if the lip posture and the chin position can be corrected, a poor facial profile may be converted into a good and pleasing one.